Reverse Osmosis

Water Corporation of Anguilla. I want to go back to a topic that concerns me. I wrote about it two weeks ago. The comments that were posted in response did not answer any of the issues.

We have no regulations controlling the disposal of waste in Anguilla. Waste is dumped all over the island. There is no limit on the type of waste that we can dump, or where we can dump it. Every kind of poisonous material is dumped all over the island, not only at the public landfill at Corito.

Much of our solid waste contains poisons that will eventually do us damage. Particularly vulnerable are foetuses and growing children. As this waste rusts and breaks down, the heavy metals in it leach into the ground and filter down to the water table. There, it accumulates until we suck it up in a well and sell it to the people.

The danger of drinking Anguilla's ground water was one of the main reasons we were told why the reverse osmosis plant at Crocus Bay was obliged to bring sea water from far out to sea. They treat sea water and used it to supply the island with safe, drinkable water. They are not allowed to treat the ground water, though this would be much cheaper than sea water.

The main pollutants that we should be concerned about are the heavy metals. Excessive levels of aluminium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, nickel, phosphorous, thallium, and zinc, in our water supply, will eventually poison us. There are 23 heavy metals in all. These metals leach into the water from ordinary household waste that we dump.

Reverse osmosis does not remove these poisons from the ground water. Highly specialised machinery is required to remove these poisons from our ground water. We have no plan to purchase and run such equipment.

Reverse osmosis is a process that removes sodium chloride from water. That means it filters out the salt. It does not “clean up” anything else that may be in the ground water. Adding chlorine to water does not assist, except to kill the e-coli bacteria that seep into the water table from our septic tanks.

If you want to learn more for yourself about this problem, Google “heavy metal poisoning” or “cleaning heavy metals”.

Why in the world would we want to go back to trying to “treat” Anguilla's ground water? Because it is cheaper!! Cheaper for whom? And, for how long until the medical bills start piling up?

Any new reverse osmosis plant in Anguilla should be obliged to use sea water for the health and safety of children not yet born.